Word to MY mother... and father

The title of this post is in recognition of the fact that I am a child of the 80's (and can still remember almost all the words to "Ice Ice Baby") and I wanted to give a shout out (respect) to my parents. (According to urbandictionary.com "word to your mother" as a phrase can mean both "I agree with you" or "I give respect to your mother/motherland".) Anyway, my parents pretty much rock. In the past few weeks I have received three packages from them containing various Steelers-related items (a new Terrible Towel, a copy of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from the day after the Super Bowl and a Super Bowl Champions t-shirt). I also received two Valentines Day cards from them (one from both, one just from my mom... it's a mother-daughter thing, we always try to make each other cry, haha). Generally I avoid recognition of Valentines Day (or as I like to call it: Single Awareness Day), but it's ALWAYS nice to be reminded that my parents love me. Now don't get me wrong, I don't just appreciate when they send me stuff. I just wanted to acknowledge my appreciation because I know they're not rollin' in the dough. I know that I would not be who I am and where I am today without the love and support of my parents. My relationship with them isn't without its flaws and arguments, but I am blessed to have them in my life. My mom is probably the most selfless person I know and my dad has taught me the value of hard work. (I know you'll read this mom, so thank you - and dad too - for always being there for me and for everything you've done for me. I love you!) Ok, now on to other stuff, before I start to cry!

On an unrelated note: my friend Katy is having a giveaway on her blog of some dishcloths she knitted. All you have to do is comment on the post to have a chance to win. She loves reading comments. :) And while we're at it, I would love it if people would comment on my posts too! It doesn't have to necessarily be related to what I wrote, it would just be nice to see who is stopping by. Thank you to those of you who already do leave comments, and especially to all the wonderful welcomes from the RevGalBlogPals ladies!

I heart youth ministry

Each week I am more convinced that my call involves ministry to youth in some way. I definitely still feel called to ordained ministry, and have had some meaningful experiences lately with older adults. But many of these everyday parish ministry experiences don't quite fill me the way working with youth does. I also realize that ministry is a lot about serving and giving of oneself, but if you're not also filling/energizing yourself with something you love, eventually there will be nothing left to give.
Youth are full of energy and I can't help but let it affect me when I'm around them. I can be my goofy self around youth and they might think I'm a little weird, but its ok, because they will still accept me and not be concerned about whether a pastor-in-training should be acting silly. Plus I think sometimes if they see an adult acting silly it gives them permission to do so as well and to let their guard down. Adolescence is hard (I definitely remember my own and I would NOT want to go through that again!) and I believe that youth need to hear that God loves them and we love them just the way they are. I also think its important to advocate for them. I've found myself in a few conversations among adults lately that were making disparaging comments about youth and I lovingly suggested that maybe they didn't have all their facts straight. Even when I get frustrated with them (like last night at Confirmation class when they were especially ornery), its hard to stay that way, because I absolutely love the youth of my internship congregation. And I LOVE youth ministry.

From snow to sun, and back again!

Following the cold, gray days of last week, we finally had some great weather on Sunday and Monday. Here at the shore it was sunny and in the 50's! I took advantage of the unusual warmth and spent some time outside taking Sadie for a walk and playing catch with her, and breaking out my shorts to go for a run. I think the weather had both of us a little amped up. I'm looking forward to consistently warmer days so I can get back to a regular running schedule (I don't typically run when its in the 30's or less... not a fan of the cold). In the meantime, I've been doing a workout video three days a week. Its by the trainer Jillian from the tv show The Biggest Loser. She's scary on that show and I figured it would motivate me to have her yelling at me. It's going ok so far. I lost a few pounds pretty quickly at the beginning but haven't lost any more since then (I've been using it for about a month now), but I'm hoping that's at least partly because it doesn't just do cardio but also strength training so I'm building muscle. It has three levels of workouts and I'm on level 2. It's hard enough that I'm afraid to see what level 3 will be like, but curiosity may get the better of me one of these days soon.
I knew that warm weather wouldn't last, and today I woke up to snow flurries. There's just a light dusting on the ground right now, but its supposed to snow most of the day so they're predicting up to 4 inches. We'll see what happens. Luckily, I don't have anything scheduled that requires me to drive anywhere today (living next to the church is convenient at times like this). Now those in ministry will know that doesn't meant something can't come up, but at this point I should be able to spend most of the day planning, etc. and working on my mid-year evaluation. We're also doing a baptism today (yay!) for an adult who works on weekends and therefore can't attend Sunday worship.
Other than work today, I'll probably continue working on my two current knitting projects. I'm almost done with a dishcloth, and I'm also working on a scarf for my little cousin. I recently finished the scarf for my mom, so I plan to send that to her this week. (Do you notice a pattern here? At this point in my knitting, I only know how to make scarves and dishcloths!) I also did end up making those cookies last week. It was a mix that came with everything layered in one jar and all I had to add was butter and an egg. They're pretty crazy cookies, cause they have just about everything in them (mini M&Ms, chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and chopped walnuts), but they're delicious! I also did some scrapbooking with my outside-of-the-church group last night. I'm working on some Christmas layouts, I'll post pictures of them when I've done more later.
Here are pictures of the scarf for my mom, and the crazy cookies!


And oh yeah...

GO STEELERS!!!
Six-time Super Bowl Champs! :)

Snow business

Well, whaddya know, it actually does snow at the Jersey shore! This picture was actually taken about a week or two ago, during some flurries. We got about a whopping two whole inches! Now, please excuse my snarkyness, because I have to admit, that until the point when we got those few inches, I was a little sad that I was living in a winter with absolutely NO snow whatsoever. I have become less and less a fan of snow each year that I get older, so I was surprised to realize that I was actually missing it a little. So, I was both happy to see a little snow and thankful that we have not had near the amounts of snow that other parts of the country do, including my home of western PA.







Now this picture is representative of what I'm currently looking at outside my window. Gross. After a warm spell last week all the snow had melted. For the past few days though, we've been back to freezing cold. (Again, thankful that its not as cold as other places!) This has been compounded by my heater not working as properly as it should. And then last night we apparently got another inch or two of snow, which then switched to freezing rain, and has now made the transition to rain, so we have a lovely covering of icy snowy slush. I repeat: gross. All this cold, grey weather for the past few days has made me want to stay inside and snuggle up in blankets and watch tv and sleep. Of course, I do have to work, so its not possible to do this all day (which is probably a good thing), but my evenings have been rather unproductive and consistent with these feelings. I'm determined to not let it get the better of me all week though! So today, as I'm working, I'm also getting other things accomplished like laundry, AND if I can get the few ingredients I need, I might actually bake some cookies! Stay tuned...

Here we go Steelers, here we go!

Pittsburgh's going to the Super Bowl!!

Ministry Musings

Life has been rather busy in 2009 so far. I'm leading a small group study in the congregation this month on caring for creation, called "Awakening to God's Call to Earthkeeping". As far as I can remember, this is the first Bible study or class I have ever led with adults. All my previous leading/teaching experience has been with children and youth. It's going pretty well so far. We've had a lot of good discussion and I've been excited to learn how many people in the congregation do believe that caring for creation is important and part of our responsibility as people of faith. I also included this idea in my sermon this past Sunday, because the first reading was from the beginning of Genesis. I got good responses on this too (at least from those who did sermon response forms). I hope this open-mindedness carries through the rest of my time here and my efforts to help the congregation assimilate creation care into its every day life.
I also had another "first" last week. I presided at my first funeral alone. I've helped my supervising Pastor with four other funerals since I've started my internship, but I had to do this one all by myself. And it was for a family that I had not previously met, though they were "members" of the church. They requested a simple ceremony. I did what I could. It was humbling.
I had a random moment of "epiphany" last month. I had a sudden moment when I realized I was finally feeling comfortable in my internship congregation. It was a good moment. I was worried that it took too long, but other people "in ministry" that I talked to about it said that it was normal, so that made me feel better. Now don't get me wrong, there are still times when I struggle and feel uncomfortable, and I probably always will, I think that comes with the "call". But I'm feeling more like myself.

New Year, New York and (K)nitting

Happy New Year! May God bless you in 2009!

I've been enjoying some time off from my internship. After helping with three Christmas Eve services, I drove from NJ to western PA early Christmas morning. I've spent a week at home at my parents, mostly relaxing, hanging out with family and friends, reading, knitting, and eating more goodies than I should (but, hey, it's the holidays).


This is a picture of one of the dishcloths I knitted my mom for Christmas (thanks, Katy, for the pattern). I decided to make her two of these, since I knew I wouldn't be getting a scarf done for her by Christmas. I am currently working on her scarf though, and hoping to finish up within the next week or two (I don't get all that much time during the day to knit) and then I'll mail it to her. I also bought yarn to make a Steelers-colored scarf for my dad.




This is the first knitting project I ever finished. It's a scarf that I made for my friend Mandy. I worked on it frantically in order to finish it before she came to visit me in Jersey the weekend before Christmas.

Mandy had to make quite the trek out from western PA so I was really grateful for her visit. We had a great time, even though most of the time we just hung around. On Saturday though, we did head up to New York City! Even though it was really cold that day we enjoyed walking around and seeing the sites like the Empire State Building, Macy's, Saks, Radio City Music Hall, St Patrick's Cathedral, Rockefeller Center, and Times Square. We also got reduced-price tickets to see the musical Spring Awakening!




I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I know my vacation has gone by way too fast. I will soon be heading back to Jersey and back to the busy intern life. Amongst the busy-ness of ministry, I will try to update my blog as often as I can.